There was a prior discussion on T5SS stellar parsing, with some good ideas, and no apparent resolution. I posted an idea there, and then an updated version in the T5 forum. Some of the discussion was hard to follow and understand.

After a lot of playing with stellar data from TravellerMap, I have some thoughts and a suggestion. I use this IMTU, and it works pretty well. I simplified as much as possible.

Here I present the most recent version, for public consumption and use. If the T5SS can use and improve on it, praise the board!

I propose an expansion of the current T5 data format for the purpose of clarifying the OTU stellar data, in 2 separate parts. Each character in the initial segment represents one star.

The string starts with a P to indicate the Primary. For each additional star I add the e-hex value of the orbit, or a "c" for a companion, and go from left to right, one position per star, in the order above. I use a "." to represent a non-existent star. I put a space in the middle to make it easier to read.

IMTU I also have a custom 4-character field after that segment, which I call the POsH, used to "locate" the mainworld. This gives me the detail level I want IMTU. I'll add the POsH to my new indicator, with a dash as a separator.

P = planet type where 0 is planet, 1 is close satellite, 2 is far satellite, and 3 is asteroid belt
O is for the SOLAR orbit A-Z
s is the satellite orbit if MW orbits a GG, or a . (decimal) for a regular planet
H is the habitable zone indicator, - for HZ-1, = for HZ, + for HZ+1, or . for asteroid belt

This allows me to use EXISTING stellar info, and add my own interpretation of where each star is located, without fouling up YTU. This also means I DON'T HAVE TO CHANGE existing stellar data, but can do it my way by simply adding MY interpretation of the stellar data.

o Consistency for future pubs/users
o Clarifies location of each existing star
o Ignore it if you don't want to use it
o Uses existing stellar data
o Almost NO PoSH indicators in the current data
- Regina and a couple of others added "Sa" (satellite) but that can be manually tweaked
- If an "official" data source gives details, use that data instead of random determination
o No changes to existing remarks needed, PoSH gives that info for remark generation

Cons:

o Adds about 15% to the overall length of the T5 data line
o Will take some work to create the OTU version
- Primary is easy; additional stars may be close, far, or far companion
o Can "add" remarks based on HZ (Co, Ho, Tr, etc) or Satellite
- that is IF they generate new remarks based on the data
o Something new to have to learn/figure out/adapt to

I'm sure there are other pros and cons, I leave those as an exercise for the reader. For example, MW is not tied to a specifi star at this time. ONE additional character in the PoSH could fix that.